An early influence on my UI/UX interest was Jakob Nielsen at useit.com/alertbox. I devoured his articles on how people use the web, worst-practices (unfortunately far too many are still in use today), and common traps.
Learning from useIt.com, webpagesthatsuck.com and others, I grew my skills from definitely sucks to still sucks, but less. I started noticing how people use websites and how those sites are inadvertently designed to make things harder to get done. I would check in every once in a while to see the useit “state of the web” article on usability issues and successes.
A few weeks ago, I thought about the useit site and realized I hadn’t been there in quite a while—since probably before COVID—and decided to check it out. I noticed it redirected to NNGroup.com/articles. After clicking around for a bit, I tried to find the latest state of the web. I clicked on his author name on one of the old articles and it brought me to his page:
Wait, he got older and retired‽ Noooo…
All is not lost, as it seems others have taken up the mantle. There are State of UX 2026 and UX Year in Review Quiz for 2026, with hopefully more to come!
Related Sites
- CSS Zen Garden – an old but still impressive site showcasing what can be achieved with CSS alone
- UX Tuts+ – UX tutorials
- CSS Tuts+ – CSS tutorials